NotesThe Fraternal Order of Police appoints a screening
committee which makes a recommendation to the Executive Board. In
Spring 2000, the five-person Presidential Screening Committee sent the
candidates questionnaires with about 20 questions covering labor and criminal
justice issues; the committee interviewed the candidates in May and provided
a written report and recommendation backing Vice President Gore to the
Board. However, on September 8, 2000 the FOP Board voted overwhelmingly
to endorse Gov. Bush over Gore. Bush accepted the endorsement on
September 20 at a rally in Media (Delaware County), Pennsylvania. endorsement
process.

The League of Conservation Voters has a somewhat
bureaucratic endorsement process. LCV's nine-member political committee,
a subset of the Board of Directors (22 voting members), met and recommended
that Gore be endorsed. This recommendation was forwarded to the executive
committee which concurred and sent the recommendation on to the full
Board. Because the presidential endorsement is an extremely important
decision, the executive committee had earlier set in place a high 70%
threshhold. This was met as Board voted to confer the endorsement
on Gore. While LCV considered supporting likely Green nominee Ralph
Nader ("the Nader conversation did happen"), the political realities of
a two-person race and Gore's legislative and governing record weighed in
favor of the vice president. LCV president Deb Callahan presented
the organization's endorsement to Gore in an event at the War Memorial
building in Milwaukee on May 30. Callahan incidentally served as
deputy political director on Gore's 1988 presidential campaign.

Americans for Democratic Action did not make a
presidential endorsement during the primary race for the first time in
recent memory. ADA's National Board, which numbers more than 200
people, initially considered the matter in a meeting in January 2000.
About 130 people attended; Rep. Albert Wynn (MD-4) spoke on behalf of Gore
and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY-8) spoke for Bradley. During the course
of three votes, neither candidate reached the required 60% threshhold.
Sen. Bradley withdrew on March 9 and another meeting was called for April
29. Fifty to 60 people attended. Ralph Nader spoke on his own
behalf, but the board voted to endorse Gore.

NARAL voted to endorse Gore during the regularly
scheduled meeting of its Board of Directors (28 members) on Feb. 11-12,
2000. The actual vote was taken by the organization's PAC board,
consisting of 7 voting and 2 ex-officio members; the vote was unanimous.
Recognizing the importance of the group's endorsement, the vice president
personally appeared in Washington, DC to accept it on Feb. 15, 2000 in
an event at the Mayflower Hotel. The endorsement was a rebuff to
Sen. Bradley, who was at that point still somewhat of a viable candidate
and had actively wooed the pro-choice constituency. Board members
thought that Bradley was misusing or abusing the choice issue as a bludgeoning
tool to get to Vice President Gore. During the Jan. 26 CNN/WMUR-TV
debate for example, Bradley directly challenged Gore on the choice issue,
asking him whether "consistency on fundamental issues of principle is relevant"
and noting that "when you were in the Congress, you had an 84 percent right-to-life
voting record." Gore responded, "I have always supported a woman's
right to choose." Choice continued to be an important issue in the
final month-plus of the Democratic race. Bradley had an ad "Choice"
running Feb. 18 that claimed "only one candidate has been pro-choice for
everyone all the time;" Gore's ad "Committed" from Feb. 19 specifically
mentioned the NARAL endorsement, including use of the NARAL logo.

The Human Rights Campaign's endorsement of Gore
on Feb. 11, 2000 was one of the first for Gore by a national organization
other than a labor union. While acknowledging Bradley's "honorable
stands on gay issues," the endorsement cited Gore's "long, well-documented
history of tangible actions." The decision by the Board of Directors
(38 persons) was unanimous, although only a simple majority was required.
HRC announced the endorsement at a West Hollywood, Calif. press conference
attended by the vice president. It also featured the endorsement
on cover of its magazine HRC Quarterly.

The National Right to Life Committee announced
its endorsement of Gov. Bush on Feb. 9, 2000 in the lead up to the South
Carolina Republican primary. The vote was taken by the National Right
to Life Committee Board (1 representative from each state and 3 at-large)
right after the New Hampshire primary and was overwhelming. The organization
had stayed neutral until that point because of the presence of several
good pro-life candidates in the GOP race; on Feb. 4 strong pro-life candidate
Gary Bauer dropped out and Steve Forbes was set to drop out on Feb. 10,
leaving essentially a Bush-McCain race (Keyes also remained in).
McCain had raised hackles among pro-lifers when he told editors of the
San
Francisco Chronicle in August 1999, "Certainly in the short term,
or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe versus Wade."
The group's antipathy towards McCain extended back further, however.
For a number of years Douglas Johnson, the NRLC legislative director, has
been an outspoken opponent of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
In January 2000 NRLC and its state affiliates ran ads in New Hampshire
and South Carolina attacking McCain. NRLC announced the Bush endorsement
in press conferences in Washington, DC and South Carolina.